You may have heard BrunuhVille’s enchanting music before, even if you didn’t know it came from him as an artist. That’s because Brunuhville creates predominantly instrumental fantasy-themed music that can be used in cinema and gaming by experimenting with multiple genres.
BrunuhVille is Bruno Miguel Correia José, a Portuguese musician with over half a million followers on YouTube. BrunuhVille creates fantasy-themed music with Celtic, orchestral, Folk, World, Ethnic, and Gothic influences.
If you want to read more about the artist’s history, his influences, and hear his music, please keep reading!
Table of Contents
The Person Behind BrunuhVille
BrunuhVille is a pseudonym for Bruno Miguel Correia José, a Portuguese musician, and independent composer. He was born on 22 July 1989, and he started playing the piano when he was fifteen. Then, he began writing music at age nineteen.
BrunuhVille first began to create music for release when he was going through a difficult time in his personal life and experiencing family and relationship difficulties. However, he’s never gone into detail on precisely what had made him so upset. Still, he admits that his goal was to express his sadness through music and find comfort in composition.
After broadcasting his music online, he immediately began gaining followers, and today BrunuhVille have over half a million subscribers on his YouTube channel. He’s found a broad international audience and shows the promise of success as a musician.
His music on YouTube began with piano compositions that stirred emotion. An example is his collection called “Sad Gothic Piano – Tales From The Dead Poet (Chapter I) – Dark Rain” posted to both YouTube and Bandcamp in 2010 which wound up on his album Once Upon A Time.
BrunuhVille is a remarkably kind and generous composer, and he often gives away his music for free on Bandcamp during the holidays or when he is celebrating a new release. He is not focused on profit but on reaching people with his music. However, he has expressed hopes that someone will feature his music on a soundtrack or video game.
He also creates some of the artwork that goes along with his songs. So, he’s really an all-around artist and creator. The background image for Nidavellir for instance was his creation. This is what he said of the process:
“For the second time, I also created the background image myself. Being able to do my own background for my own music is something I always wanted to do. Most of the time I can find amazing art that fits my music perfectly but this was a tough one as there is a very limited amount of dwarf-inspired artwork that would fit my vision.”
BrunuhVille’s Music Style & Influence
Although BrunuhVille’s original inspiration for his music compositions was a way of expressing his sadness at his relationship difficulties, he also finds inspiration in other bands, artists, and movie soundtracks.
BrunuhVille’s music style is unique as he combines several genres in his songs:
- Celtic
- Gothic
- Norse
- Folk
- Movie
- New age
- Medieval
- World music
- Orchestral
- Ethnic
He intelligently fuses the enchantment of these genres to form his version of fantasy music, which he loves as he believes that the magic of Celtic music helps draw the listener into a fantasy world.
For instance, Falls of Glory is part of BrunuhVille’s Aurora album, released in 2014. After the popularity of the Lumina track, BrunuhVille intended it to be an extension of the song. However, he got carried away in the creative process, and the song wound up being quite different from Lumina.
Falls of Glory is one of BrubuhVille’s only tracks that feature Uilleann pipes, an iconic instrument in Celtic music. You can also hear bagpipes in this song, which give a shrill, humming sound in the background.
BrunuhVille experiments with genres frequently, hoping to be a well-rounded composer who can piece together music in any style. He’s released several tracks with American Western themes and cyberpunk influences, although these tracks have seen less success than his more Celtic and Nordic-inspired fantasy-themed pieces.
As I listen to them, I actually really enjoy this music and he is very specific in his explanation of why he dove into such a dramatically different genre and style.
“Here’s a change of pace from the usual. The story behind this track is actually both a personal challenge and a mind clear. I am a fan of the cyberpunk theme, the colors, and the scenery, and every time I am looking for a background picture for my videos I always stumble upon some really cool ones for this genre. For the last 10 years, I have been doing pretty much the same kind of music, evolving and trying to perfect my craft but a few days ago, after looking at more pictures of this genre I thought to myself “Can I do it? Would it sound good? Would people like it?”
BrunuhVille
So, in this case, he is challenging himself to do something different. It means he is willing to try new genres and he is developing and adapting. Though he loves stepping out of his comfort zone with these kinds of compositions, he knows that his fans love fantasy, Gothic, and Celtic music most so he will only publish these songs sporadically.
His explanation of the name of this particular collection of music is telling. It reminds us that his main influence is fantasy.
“-Nidavellir (old Norse “Niðavellir”, sometimes mentioned as “Svartalfheim”) The realm of the dwarves. The dwarves lived in caves deep inside the mountains. They were masters of craftsmanship and used their forges to craft weapons for the Gods such as Thor’s hammer and Odin’s spear.”
Today, BrunuhVille often incorporates personal experiences into his songs. Dreams for instance is from his Northwind album released in 2015 and tells one of BrunuhVille’s highly personal stories of how he lost someone. Although it was BrunuhVille’s story, he asked Sharm, a British musician, and composer, to narrate it.
BrunuhVille creates similar music to Adrian von Ziegler, Peter Gundry, and Celestial Aeon Project. However, the following music artists have had a significant influence on BrunuhVille’s songwriting:
- Nightwish
- Hans Zimmer
- Tuomas Holopainen
- Brian Crain
- Jeremy Soule
- Howard Shore
BrunuhVille’s Most Notable Hits
You can listen to BrunuhVille’s music on YouTube or download them from Bandcamp or iTunes. BrunuhVille has also released several CDs, which you can buy online. But below are his most notable hits:
Spirit of the Wild
Released in 2015 as part of the Age of Wonders album, Spirit of the Wild is one of BrunuhVille’s trademark fantasy and Celtic songs. Spirit of the Wild is one of BrunuhVille’s most impactful.
This song has seen widespread success with 19 million views on YouTube and almost 4 million streams on Spotify.
He created this song while working on another piece, The Voice of the Forest. Finding the process tedious and monotonous, he needed a breath of fresh air, and composing Spirit of the Wild was precisely what he needed to destress.
The Wolf and the Moon
This song has had over 9.9 million views on YouTube and over 3.7 million streams on Spotify. In other words, it is also very successful. It features elements of fantasy, Celtic, and Epic music and was composed to match a background picture that he loved. In case you want to be inspired, he always leaves links to the artists of his used artwork on his YouTube description to be sure everyone gets the credit.
Lumina
Lumina is a fantasy song, but BrunuhVille struggled to give it this genre because he believed the piece could not be placed in a box. The song has a backing vocal choir which enhances its etherealness, emotional impact, and Celtic undertones.
When listening to the song, the listener can feel as if they’ve been transported to a misty Nordic landscape where life is similar to that in a fantasy novel. So far this song has been viewed 8.9 million times on YouTube. And that’s just on BrunuhVille’s own page. Other content creators have republished his music on their channels garnering thousands of views as well.
Hymn to Eternity
Hymn to Eternity is a popular track on BrunuhVille’s 2013 album, Aura. He started creating the song in 2012, but the release was delayed due to illness and relationship issues. BrunuhVille’s goal was to create a song that one could use in an animation movie, and this song’s melodic and peaceful rhythm makes it ideal for this.
It describes how someone is contemplating the end of their life with sadness. As they look at the birds in the sky, they realize that their spirit will remain for eternity, although their physical body will be gone.
